It was exactly 17 years to the day, July 2nd 1993 that Turkey lived one of its darkest days in its history when 33 Alevi and well known intellectuals were burnt alive by Radical Islamists.

Video of angry mob first attacking the cultural centre and then attacking the Madımak hotel.

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Two hotel staff and two protesters were also killed in the massacre.

Remembrance marches and gatherings are being organized all over Turkey and in many European countries to commemorate and honor the 35 innocent people who were murdered, by the Islamic mob.

Turkish authorities have also announced that a government official will also attend the remembrance ceremonies of the 35 innocent people who perished in the hotel fire.

Amongst those who were killed includes singer song writer and poet Nesimi Çimen, poet Metin Altıok, writer Asım Bezirci, Turkish folk singer Hasret Gültekin and many other important Alevi and well known intellectual figures at a time where many prominent figures who criticized the government were mysteriously killed such as Uğur Mumcu, Bahriye Üçok, Turan Dursun, Çetin Emeç and many others.

Five people under the age of 20 including a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl also fell victim to the mob.

Over 50 people were injured in the incident where many writers, intellectuals and important figures in Turkey have blamed the military and security forces for not doing enough to disperse the crowd.

The crowd’s anger was mainly at Aziz Nesin a well known figure in Turkey, who was an author, supporter of free speech, a political activist and a critic of Islam.

The crowd amassed after Friday prayers
The angered crowd had amassed after the afternoon Friday prayers to the thousands and marched to Government Building where Sivas governor of the time, Ahmet Karabilgin was, shouting protests and trying to get into the building, but were stopped by security forces.

The mob then went over to the cultural centre where hundreds of Alevi’s, singers, authors and intellectuals, some invited by the Sivas governor, Ahmet Karabilgin, attended a festival in the name of a prominent figure of the Alevi religion, Pir Sultan Abdal.

The mob, who was confronted by security forces, stoned the cultural centre but were stopped from actually getting into the building.

At around 2.45pm, almost 33 soldiers from the Turkish military had come to the area where the violent protests were occurring but only stood and watched.

At around 3.30pm after no adequate support came for the police officers, who were stopping the crowd from entering the cultural centre started to throw stones at the building and took down a statue of Pir Sultan Abdal.

The people inside the cultural centre locked the doors from the inside and only after the mayor of the time, Temel Karamollaoğlu, asked the crowd to leave, did they eventually start going back home or to their work place.

The Mob was directed to the Madımak Hotel
However, as the angered mob was dispersing, a group of people called the group back to the Madımak hotel where Aziz Nesin and dozens of the people who had attended the festival were staying.

The crowd at this time had reached around 5000 against only 500 security officials. For up to seven hours from the time the mob left the mosque and gathered in front of the Madımak hotel, no adequate numbers of riot police or military came to the area.

At around 7pm the police and security forces who were completely overwhelmed by the 10,000 strong mob had reached the walls of the Madımak hotel.

The statue which was ripped in front of the cultural centre was brought to the centre of the mob and ripped apart.

At this time members of the mob had went into the hotel and looted the first two floors and thrown some of the furniture to the entrance of the hotel as though they were trying to stop those inside getting out.

Ahmet Karabilgin said that after, he had asked for support from the area military commander, that only 30 to 40 soldiers had come but only to the government square to protect the governor and not the people at the Madımak hotel. Also many other soldiers who came to the area had stand guard in totally inadequate locations of the city rather than actually dealing with the crowd.

Soldiers were turned around by the Mob
A small group of soldiers that tried to get close to the Hotel were halted by the angry mob shouting “soldiers to Bosnia” slogans.

The soldiers, after negotiations with some leaders of the crowd then saw that they did not have the numbers to deal with the mob and turned back.

This has been seen as the, catalyst effect which led to what happened next.

After the soldiers left the area, the cars and objects which were thrown in front of the hotel were set on fire.

Within minutes the hotel was engulfed in flames, the angry mob shouting victory slogans while a group of soldiers only watched on.

Some protesters were heard saying, “Allah, this is your fire” while others shouted, “the fire of hell”.

Nesin was “thrown” to the angered mob
The drama did not end there; some of the people inside the burning building who tried to jump over to the balcony of the building beside the Madımak hotel were confronted by angry protesters with sticks as the floor was the Sivas office of the BDP, an Islamic Party.

After the fire brigade eventually got through to the Madımak hotel, a fireman who had put a ladder up and led survivors off the building saw that Aziz Nesin was coming down.

The Fireman was then seen throwing Nesin off the vehicle into the middle of the angry crowd literally “chucking him like a bag”.

One man alleged to be a politician of the now closed Welfare Party (Refah Parti) was heard shouting, “here is the animal which needs to be killed” pointing at Nesin.

Nesin who was kicked and punched while on the ground started to bleed and by the sheer luck of a police officer nearby, Nesin was put into a police van and taken to the hospital.

The crowd who then went to the Government building where governor Karabilgin was, attacked the building, which for some miraculous reason, no security forces were present at.

The crowd eventually was dispersed by 18 soldiers who came in front of the government building.

37 people in total died because of the fire, 33 were Alevi and well known intellectuals, poets and singers, while two were hotel staff and another two were the protesters themselves that were either burnt alive or died due to smoke inhalation.

After the massacre, a curfew was place in Sivas to calm the air down but, till this day, the Sivas Massacre also known as the Madımak Massacre or the Sivas fire has had social implications till this day.

Those 33 people and the two hotel staff have become unknowing heroes and a tragic milestone which marks one of the darkest days in Turkish history.

Those who died in the Madımak Hotel fire
Erdal Ayrancı – age 35
Gülender Akça – age 25
Behçet Aysan – age 44
Yasemin Sivri – age 19
Edibe Sulari – age 40
İnci Türk – age 22
Kenan Yılmaz – age 21
Uğur Kaynar – age 37
Nesimi Çimen – age 67
Ahmet Alan – age 22
Mehmet Atay – age 25
Sehergül Ateş – age 30
Gülsüm Karababa – age 22
Carina Cuanna – age 23
Muhibe Akarsu, age 35
Muhlis Akarsu – age 45
Asım Bezirci – age 66
Belkıs Çakır- age 18
Serpil Canik – age 19
Muammer Çiçek – age 26
Gündüz – age 22
Metin Altıok – age 52
Serkan Doğan – age 19
Hasret Gültekin – age 23
Murat Güneş,Murat
Asaf Koçak – age 35
Koray Kaya – age 12
Menekşe Kaya – age 17
Ahmet Öztürk – age 21
Ahmet Özyurt – age 21
Nurcan Şahin – age 18
Özlem Şahin – age 17
Asuman Sivri – age 16
Handan Metin – age 20
Sait Metin – age 23
Huriye Özkan – age 22
Yeşim Özkan – age 20

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